Comment by danpalmer
2 days ago
Who is this for?
Because it's not for the developers I know – they either want a Macbook or an infinitely configurable (hardware and software) workstation, whereas this has the configurability of a Macbook with the ease of use of the workstation, clearly not a combination people want.
I can only assume this is for mechanical keyboard collectors. Developer-adjacent tech enthusiasts who like the idea of Linux, without an actual professional need for it. People who like well built devices, but don't really care about swapping out hardware. People who have a lot of disposable income and want to buy cool things.
If that's the target market, that's fine. I guess the problem is that market only buys it if you claim its for a different market, developers/etc. As a result it's going to rile up developers every time as they always feel the need to push back with "this isn't what I want".
> Who is this for?
Probably people who see this and experience extreme confused nostalgia for the unholy merge of IBM and Commodore esthetic. It makes no practical sense, it's overpriced, it's a terrible use of space and I still crave it.
If they were going for the commodore aesthetic, 1) may be don't call it workbench OS to confuse people and 2) the numpad (if it was called that then) is on the wrong side. It was on the right on the C64 and the amiga alike like it was.
Would this benefit left handed users? I know people call for reversing mouse buttons and mouse hands but I've never seen an ask for flipping the position of the numpad.
As a leftie, I've never really used a keyboard and mouse "left handed". It's too much hassle to have to keep swapping things around when you live in a household of righties, so I just learned to use stuff the "normal" way around. In situations where there is an obvious physical disadvantage to using right handed items (eg scissors), I'll do my best to find a leftie equivalent, but it sounds like more hassle than it's worth to do the same with a mouse and keyboard. I can't draw for the life of me with a mouse, but that doesn't come up much. I don't really see the point of a left side numpad, though TBH I rarely use one anyways
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They don't have to replicate everything exactly as it was in the original machines to give the right vibe. It's similar, not a retrocomputing reproduction. Also Amiga was made by Commodore - it's in the same family. I don't expect anyone to be confused by the workbench naming though - it's a weird name, but why would anyone stick the actual workbench os on a multi-GB machine?
I got an Apple IIc vibe off it at first, but then I saw it as more like a Commodore 64C, and now I cannot unsee that.
> Because it's not for the developers I know – they either want a Macbook or an infinitely configurable (hardware and software) workstation
I know lots of developers (me included) who want something solid and stable and Linux, i.e. definitely not a macbook
The uniform stagger is likely to make most keyboard nerds turn their noses up too.
I don't know either. I'm a developer, a very old grumpy beardy one at that. My "expert development workstation" since I began hacking on Linux almost 30 years ago has been "whatever's the fastest thing in the e-waste skip, crammed full of as much memory as I can pilfer from the rest of the scrap", and then with a brand new disk at the best price-per-gigabyte ratio I can get this afternoon from the totally-not-drug-money-laundering discount PC parts shop in town.
I don't think I've ever spent "real money" on a PC for my own use, and I doubt I ever will.
I suspect my experience mirrors that of about 50% of the folk on HN.
I’m like this, except after reseating DRAM enough times I now indulge in ECC.
Tin of Servisol and a bit of printer paper wrapped around a bank card.
Probably more like 20%, but it's the cool 20%.